The instant invention relates to a heated seat, especially used in vehicles, wherein an electrical resistance heater is installed on the foil-lined inside of the covering fabric.
The German patent application No. P 35 05 652.2 of Feb. 18, 1985, discloses a process for the production of a seat heater which is especially suitable for installation on foam cushion cores because of its great elasticity. The utilization of this heater with seat and back cushions produced by a deep-drawing process is set out in claim 3 of that document.
In the manufacture of such seat heaters, the connection between the actual heating elements installed on the covering fabric and the electrical feed line causes difficulties. The connecting structure which connects the heating elements to the feedlines also supports a heat regulator and is therefore difficult to position without coming into contact with the covering fabric. The feed line can be taken through a recess on the form frame with relative ease. The connecting structure is placed on the covering fabric and after the foaming process produces a hard spot at that location which tends to produce breaks. If the junction then hangs practically freely in space, it generally becomes twisted and thus produces a heat conductor crossing and thus a hot spot which generally also leads to a break when it has become oxidized.
It is therefore the object of the instant invention to position the connecting plate bearing the heat regulator in such manner that it cannot be felt at the surface of the covering fabric (which can be made of cushion material, leather or artificial leather), cannot become twisted and thus produce a heat conductor cross-over, so that only perfect, inwardly directed contours are formed in the covering material of the seat. The seat can therefore be formed by a ram in a vacuum mold to produce contours which do not hinder the pressure process as such and which reliably avoid a collision with the pressure tools through secure placing of the connection plate in its predetermined position.
In this connection provision must also be made to ensure that the insertion process of the heated covering fabrics into the different deep-draw molds for the covering fabrics equipped with heaters which are put on foam in a so-called carousel that runs continuously or semi-continuously in pre-programmed clock times, be no different from the insertion process for non-heated covering fabrics, i.e., that they require no or so little expenditure in time that they can be produced simultaneously without delay in production within the framework of normal manufacture.